Aircraft flight simulators and automobile driving simulators have been in existence for many years. In their rudimentary form, these simulators provide a movie or video tape of the view through a vehicle windshield so that the “pilot” or “driver” in the simulator can respond to the events viewed as they are presented to the viewer.
Automobile driving simulators of this type have long been used for driver training. In the use of these driver training simulators, the trainee sits at a console or table equipped with a steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake pedal, which together simulate the controls of an automobile. The trainee views the movie on a screen or sees a video presentation on a television monitor. As the movie or video presentation takes place, the trainee is presented with a variety of driving situations, to which the trainee is to respond with appropriate inputs to the simulated automobile controls. These simulated controls are connected to an instructor's monitoring instrument so that students may be scored on their performance. The trainees who not make the appropriate control inputs may be identified and further instructed.
Understandably, this rudimentary driver training simulator does not have a high degree of realism. There is no unpredictability in this simulator. Once a student has experienced one training session, that same training movie or video will be familiar, and the student's driving responses will be conditioned by experience rather than being the spontaneous result of a proper response to an unexpected situation. For this reason, a variety of different movies or videos need to be created and provided to students for use with this type of simulator.
The rudimentary flight simulators operate similarly to driver training simulators. Some of these conventional simulators combine a sound track with the visual presentation to the trainee. For added realism, this sound track may be recorded in an actual vehicle in operation. More advanced flight and driving simulators add computer graphics generated in real-time, or near-real-time, combined with sound effects also generated to correlate with the visual presentation to enhance the spontaneity and realism of the simulation. These rudimentary systems are limited by the computational power required to generate video images and appropriate sounds in real-time. Some of these simulators allow an instructor to pre-set a situation for presentation to a trainee, or to introduce impromptu changes in the situation as presented even while the training experience is underway. However, these options also require substantial added computational power from the simulator system.
More advanced flight simulators add a motion platform on which the trainee or passenger is carried and moved in an enclosed cabin in order to experience the sights, sounds and simulated acceleration forces (herein, “G-forces”) correlated with the apparent motions of the simulated aircraft on the ground or in flight. Such motion platforms move only a few inches or feet, and have a limited range of G-forces which may be provided to the passenger in the simulator. These G-forces are provided by a combination of horizontal and vertical accelerations, (resulting in limited horizontal and vertical motions of the cabin), combined with rotational accelerations of the cabin (resulting in angulation or tipping of the cabin through limited angles), so that a portion of the gravitational force can be added to the G-forces generated by some cabin motions. Between sensory movements of the passenger cabin by such a motion base (which sensory movements are intended to impart sensory inputs to the passenger), the cabin of such motion base simulators is smoothly moved at a sub-perceptual rate toward a centered position in anticipation of the next sensory movement. That is, the cabin of the simulator actually has only a limited range of motion so that between sensory accelerations the motion base has to creep back toward its centered position. In this way, as much as possible of the movement of the motion base is available for the next sensory movements of the base.
Vehicle ride simulators have recently been developed based on the flight simulator technology described above. For example, the STAR TOURS® attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., provides passengers with the simulated experience of riding in an interplanetary space ship during a trip to distant planets. Along the way, passengers participate in an attack on a hostile space ship. The cabin used can only move a short distance on a motion base while the passengers are provided with a visual and audio presentation simulating the space ship ride. While this visual and audio presentation is under way, correlated G-forces are provided to the passengers by motions of the motion base carrying the passenger cabin.
However, at this time there has not been such an interplanetary passenger spaceship which could have been used to provide the visual, audio, or G-force experience provided to the passengers of this ride. That is, the motions of this passenger cabin, and the resulting sensory G-forces experienced by the passengers, are believed to be those selected by a technician to go along with the visual and audio presentation. These G-forces are not reactions of a motion base to the actual G-forces experienced at a vehicle or other conveyance. This presentation is similar to a cartoon affected with modern visual special effects. Moreover, the degree of realism imparted by such a simulator depends in large measure on the skill of the technicians in selecting the G-forces to be experienced by the passengers, and in correctly timing these G-forces to the visual and audio presentation. In other words, the technicians have to plan and time the motions of the motion base which provides these G-forces to the passengers of the ride so that the impression of movement from riding on the simulated vehicle is correlated with the visual and audio presentation.
Another conventional vehicle ride simulator is similar to the STAR TOURS® ride in that it relies on a passenger cabin carried on a motion base, and within which passengers sit to receive a visual and audio presentation. However, this ride simulator uses a visual presentation similar to the early flight simulators or driver training simulators, in that it is recorded by a camera looking forward through the windshield of an actual vehicle of the type being simulated. An audio presentation also recorded in the actual vehicle is used along with this visual presentation to the passengers in the simulator. Thus, this simulator has true correlation of the visual and audio presentation, and a good level of realism in this respect. Moreover, the visual and audio presentation used in this simulator is similar to that sometimes provided to television viewers who can receive a audio/visual signal fed from an on-the-car camera and microphone of a racing car. The home television viewer, of course, has no-sense of the G-forces experienced in the racing car. On the other hand, the passengers in the simulator see the view through the windshield and hear the sounds of an actual vehicle, such as a NASCAR® stock car on the track at Daytona Beach, Fla., for example, while also experiencing simulated G-forces.
However, with this ride simulator as with the STAR TOURS® ride, the G-forces experienced by passengers In the simulator, and their tuning in correlation with the visual and audio presentation, are simulated and depend on the skill of a technician. This ride is not, reactive, because it does not drive a motion base using G-force data actually collected at the vehicle or other remote site being simulated. Thus, the realism achieved by this conventional ride simulator is also highly dependent upon the skills of a technician.
Various patents have been proposed over the years. U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,344, to Fallacaro et al. relates to a system for enhancing an audio/visual presentation, such as for viewers of a boxing match, by adding a sensory perception simulating the striking of blows as these blows occur in the actual boxing match. In this way, the usual vicarious participation in the boxing match by spectators can be enhanced. The system may include a device simulating the receiving of such blows also. The participant in this simulation of participation in the boxing match wear “boxing gloves”, which include a remotely controlled “knuckle rapper”. This knuckle rapper strikes the wearer on the knuckles to simulate the landing of a blow with the participant's fist. By the actions of a technician, the knuckle rapping is synchronized with the actual blows landed in the boxing match, so that the impression of being in the boxing match is enhanced for the participants in the simulation. This system relies for its realism on the skills of the technician to synchronize the knuckle rapping with the actual blows given in the boxing match.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,794, to Ritchey discloses a panoramic camera and panoramic imaging system. Real-time imagery from a vehicle in motion can apparently be provided to a spectator, but the spectator does not receive simulated accelerations (G-forces) from the vehicle in motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,772 to Ninomiya et al. relates to a ride simulator for giving passengers a simulated ride down a river rapids. The ride simulator includes a theater upon which a visual presentation is projected, along with water splash, river sounds, and wind. The “boat” in which passengers ride is swayed and tilted by a mechanism (which is similar to a motion base mechanism) under the a water channel carrying the boat so that riders have the false experience of shooting down a river rapids. Acceleration forces from an actual boat on an actual river rapids is apparently not used in this simulation. This simulation would again appear to rely for its realism upon the skills of a technician to provide and time G-forces to the audio/visual presentation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,480 to Ellsworth disclose a multi-media (sight, sound, and motion) ride simulator with a passenger cabin moved by actuators while a audio/visual presentation is made to the passengers. The ride includes a real-time video presentation of familiar surroundings during an initial and concluding parts of the ride so that passengers have the impression of leaving the local of the ride on a moving vehicle, and later of returning to this same spot. This ride simulator does not appear to use G-forces from an actual vehicle to drive the motion base of the ride.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,354,202 to Moncrief et al.; and 5,366,376 to Copperman et al., both appear to relate to driving simulators. The first of these patents appears to relate to an arcade game, with a stationary seat for the player. There is not motion base involved in this game, and no simulation of G-forces for the simulated vehicle. The latter of these two patents appears to disclose another stationary driving simulator, again with no simulation of the G-forces for the simulated vehicle. Conventional, arcade games or simulators are also known which are believed to be similar to that of the '202 Patent discussed immediately above, but which also include a “seat shaker” or some other moving mechanism for the seat in which the occupant sits. However, all of these devices would appear to be very much lacking in realism compared to the experience provided by the present invention.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,238 to Baxter et al. relates to an amusement ride in which passengers actually do ride on a vehicle, which vehicle includes mechanisms to enhance the impressions received by the passengers that the vehicle is out of control or is following a perilous course. There appears to be the use of audio/visual effects in conjunction with this vehicle. However, there is not use of G-forces from an actual vehicle in motion to control a motion base.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.